The Democratic majority in Congress means more wilderness bills will be debated in the nation’s capitol this year. It will inspire debate across the West, too. And it will bring many long-heard mischaracterizations about the wilderness designation. It’s already happening here in western Montana, where some recent editorialists set their sights on the proposed Northern […]

On a dark street in suburban Whitefish, something sinister was underway. A private eye, sipping cheap coffee from a dirty Styrofoam cup, peered through binoculars at a neighborhood window, smirking at the apparent scandal he had uncovered. His eyes slitted, he pulled a cigar from his rumpled trench coat and lit up, the smoke climbing […]

The people of the greater Whitefish area are united in our love for the land and water. From Happy Valley to Big Mountain, around the lake, and all along the Whitefish range we share a common bond. We love our hills, lakes, and streams. We are truly grateful to the heart of downtown, to aquatic […]

In 1952 Sen. Estes Kefauver defeated President Harry Truman in the New Hampshire primary with the momentous result that Truman announced he would not seek re-election. In that same primary, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower defeated Ohio Sen. Robert “Mr. Republican” Taft, grandee of congressional insiders. If the plans of party leaders hadn’t been upset by a […]

Montana Supreme Court rulings are, on their face, often perplexing. That’s part of the problem. To simplify one of its most recent decisions is arduous, but the following is the brunt of an inane reversal that involves alcohol, intimacy and a couple of Constitutions: A deputy spotted a man legally driving a Chevy pickup in […]

One of my New Year’s resolutions is a howling good one: to get me a wolf. I’m not the only one resolving such a thing for 2008. The Helena Independent-Record ran a Web-poll that showed 253 of 471 respondents support a wolf-hunting season. Even 63 percent of random Idaho “not-hunters” surveyed feel hunting is an […]

Bucky Wolford’s Glacier Mall, aka Glacier Town Center (no extra “e’s,” thank goodness) is going to have yet another public hearing, on Jan. 7. It should be a doozy, with everyone’s nerves freshly frayed by the just-ended North Kalispell Christmas Season Shopping Traffic Jam. At the recent non-voting hearing before Kalispell City Council, Citizens for […]